Chapter 9

My sister, not being able to mind her own business, had gotten me into the mess that I was in now. I had made a sworn promise that when I finished planning this wedding I was going to cause her bodily harm. I was walking into this whole thing blind. I didn't know what Conner's fiancée knew about me or if she knew anything about me. What happened if Conner had told her what our situation was? What then? I spent most of my life avoiding complications like this, and here I was walking into one great big mess.

It had taken my sister two days to get me to crack and plan this wedding. I still don't know what processed me to give in, but I figured it was the fact that this wedding was going to be planned by one of us and it might as well be me, because my sister was acting like psycho sister bitch at the moment. When she had her mind on something she acted on her instincts and her instincts sucked. It was one of the reasons that we had gotten in to so much trouble when we were younger.

I was holding our first meeting in my sister's office since I figured that this would be a better setting for a murder. I don't know what I would do if I were in Teddy's situation, but I figured I wouldn't be thrilled with the news that my fiancé fathered a baby by someone else. I didn't know Conner's fiancée so who knew how she would react to meeting me… Saying I wasn't comfortable with this would be a vast understatement.

Maybe I would luck out and she wouldn't want me to plan her wedding.

This office was like something out of a nightmare. There was no mistaking that this was my sister's office because the whole thing was in pink. You name it and it was in some shade of pink. The desk was a more classic great big wood desk, but there was a light finish to it and the finish was pink as well. Her computer was pink. Zach had told me when he had stopped by the office that her office was the talk of the building. This theme was the longest one to last. I had a feeling that the computer didn't go with any other color scheme.

I was sitting at her desk feeling overwhelmed and lost, not to mention sickened by the fact that I was stuck in this office, when Teddy walked in. She was alone thank god. As soon as I saw her I knew why Conner had picked her. I didn't know about her personality, but her looks were like something out of a fashion magazine. She was blonde with delicate looks and she was stacked. I could see what had caught Conner's eye. I had thought he had a little more depth then to pick a bimbo, but what did I know? Maybe she was really smart.

"Hi, you must be Ms. Daniels," I held out my hand for her to take which she did.

"Hi, you must be Jessica; I've heard so many things about you." Teddy gushed.

I sighed, "I'm so sorry Ms. Daniel's but my sister wasn't able to be here today. She just had a baby and she's gotten a little ahead of herself. I'm Elizabeth Wakefield. I must warn you that I am not as well known as Jessica, but I do know what I'm doing. I would have told you-"

Teddy smiled and held up a hand to stop me, "I really don't mind. Planning a big fancy wedding isn't really something that I hold on the top of the list, but my parents insisted that I do something… You sister was on the cover of Wedding Planner magazine and I called her. I am well aware that some strings were pulled to get me in at such short notice. I really don't mind. As long as you know what you're doing then it's okay with me."

I was glad that she didn't seem to be the spoiled brat that I thought she would be. I was also glad that she could be so accommodating with me planning her wedding. How she would have reacted to me planning her wedding if she knew who the hell I was?…. Now that was a different story. It shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did to know that Conner hadn't changed as much as I had hoped he had.

I sat back down at Jess's hideous pink desk and looked at some papers, "With all the information sheets we have on all your likes and dislikes I shouldn't have to bother you to much with details, but I will have to go through you to confirm everything. We don't have a lot of time so we are going to have to meet every couple of days and I am going to need a number to get a hold of you at all times so we can make this go a little smoother."

When I looked up she was nodding in agreement and I went on to explain my overall plan of what I wanted to do. She didn't disagree with anything, and for that I was glad. The next time I looked at the clock I saw that we had gone over our hour. When I pointed this out, and I apologized Teddy didn't seem to upset and told me that she could stay if it would help at all since she didn't have anything else planned. Since it made my life easier and she wasn't at all hard to deal with I agreed.

"If you don't mind staying and working longer then would you mind if we took a break for lunch."

Teddy laughed, "I thought you would never ask."

I smiled, "Okay, we could eat here or we could go down stairs and go to one of the restaurants around here."

"Can we just order our food here? I really don't want to go into a restaurant. People seem to recognize me and then tend to get in the way," she looked embarrassed.

It hit me that people would recognize her because of her father. She wasn't the most famous person in the world, but she had her pictures in the papers a couple of times. While I had been with her this last hour and half I found it easy to forget that she was a young rich woman, because she didn't act like it. Conner and found a good match for himself. He was going to screw it up though if he wasn't honest with her. Hell, he was going to screw it up with me if he wasn't honest with her.

I was already picking up the phone, "What do you want?"

"I really don't care as long as it's food. A pizza wouldn't be too bad, but get half with nothing on it if you could."

I said that pizza wouldn't be a problem and I ordered it, "It will be here in about an hour."

She sighed and leaned back in her chair, "I just noticed that you look a lot like your sister."

I laughed, "I should. I'm here identical twin."

"That must have been fun," she grinned.

I knew what she was talking about, "It still is. We still have fun tricking her husband. He's pretty good at telling us apart, but he's still working on telling us apart from a distance."

She laughed and we screwed planning the wedding for awhile and we just talked. I talked about what life was like growing up with Jessica. Teddy talked about growing up with all that money. We bonded a little in the hour and when the pizza came we talked all through that. We were just getting back down to business when Conner called Teddy. She told him where she was and she said that if he wanted to he could come to the meeting. I knew he didn't want to be here, but he agreed anyway. Teddy told me that he would be here in about ten minutes. After that things got more down to business.

When Conner walked in he looked shocked the first second he saw me. I was surprised that he was one of the few who could tell my sister and I apart even from a distance. He must have thought that I had talked my sister, or someone else to plan the wedding. He looked worried until it became obvious that Teddy had no idea who I was. Then he calmed down only enough to put on a front that there was nothing wrong. I might have missed if I didn't know that I was looking for something.

"So how many people to you plan to invite?"

Teddy groaned, "My parents want me to invite way too many people. I'm thinking maybe 50, but if my parents get there way then there will be close to 200."

I ignored Conner's shocked look at how many people could be in attendance and thought about this, "So we need somewhere that's going to hold a lot of people if we need it. I'm thinking something outside. That way it's easy to work with a larger number of people. I do need to know how many people will for sure be coming though within two days though. Wedding invitations have to be made and sent out, food has to be ordered, I need a number of chairs and tables, the list goes on," I said making notes.

"Is there going to be any problems with guests and the short notice on the wedding? Sending people invitations for a wedding two weeks before… I'm pushing it if I can get them out so soon. We have 16 days. Do you want to maybe push back the wedding a little?" I suggested.

Teddy was already shaking her head, "Two weeks is all the time I have. Traveling gets crazy around this time for me. I have to do it now during my break while I still have time. I work at my parents company. To get somewhere I have to work twice as hard. Not to mention that the more time I spend planning this wedding is a risk because it means more time for my parents to come in and change it all to there liking."

The planning went longer and longer and Conner became more involved as time went on because some things he really disagreed on. All three of us spent hours working on all of the details on the wedding. It wasn't normally how planning a wedding worked, but there was a lot to plan in two weeks and since all of us seemed to have nothing pressing to do it worked out. I had prepared a lot before hand so I had a lot of samples of things to show them and portfolios and what not.

Just as we were about to go on three and half hours the phone rang.

"Hello, JKZ's Bridal. Elizabeth speaking," I greeted.

"Mommy!" my son squealed into the phone.

I rolled my eyes, "David your not suppose to use the phone," I admonished.

"Uncle Todd fell asleep and I gots bored."

"I'm working right now. You shouldn't be using the phone. There's not a whole lot I can do for you. Wake Uncle Todd up and put him on the phone if you could."

I heard David put the phone down and a second later a groggy came over the line, "Hello."

"Todd," I growled.

I held up one hand to Teddy and Conner. I got up from my desk and went outside my sister's office so I could talk to Todd in private.

"I don't really mind that you fell asleep on my son. I'm amazed that you were able to really, but can you please not leave my number around so he can just pick up the phone and call. He's old enough to uses a phone you know."

"I'm sorry Liz. He was asleep on the couch when I went to lie down. I figured that I would hear him when he woke up. I really didn't plan to fall asleep really."

I told him not to let David use the phone again and ended the call. I went back into my sister's hell whole. I figured that now was as good as any to put an end to this meeting. I could tell that Todd really wanted to go home and pass out and I knew that David would be calling again soon in boredom. I wasn't going to get much more work done today.

"Okay," I said as soon as I stepped into the office, "My son is getting bored of the babysitter. He's already worn him out. I need to get going. I'm not hard to get a hold of so if you have any questions or you need me for anything I'll most likely be available."

"I really can't complain. We worked for over three hours. We got a lot done," Teddy said being compliant.

I nodded and we all got ready to go. For the first time in the two hours that Conner had been here I looked into his eyes. What I saw there was regret, but I couldn't allow myself to feel any pity for him, because he was the one digging himself in this whole. Teddy had surprised me and she was really one of a kind. He was hurting her by not telling her about anything that was going on. It pissed me off even more when I thought about it. I looked back with cold, unfeeling eyes and said goodbye to the both of him.

If Conner McDermott was looking for sympathy, he was going to have to look somewhere else.